11 Year-Old Louisiana Boy Steals School Bus – Flips Off Cops During High-Speed Chase

An 11 year-old boy from Baton Rouge, Louisiana managed to steal a school bus on Sunday, and he proceeded to flip off police when they embarked on a high-speed chase with him.

Baton Rouge Police Department spokesman L’Jean McKneely told reporters that the boy climbed inside the school bus that belonged to a contractor working with the Head Start Elementary. The boy then taunted cops as they tried to apprehend him in a chase that lasted 45 minutes.

The chase finally came to an end when the boy crashed into a tree outside of a home. The people who owned the house were left in shock seeing police arrest someone who was so young.

“It was just unbelievable to see something like that,” said homeowner Libby Smith. “You just don’t think of a 10-year-old boy driving a bus and being in control of a big bus like that.”

“Thank goodness he was OK, he was safe, but it was not your typical Sunday afternoon occurrence for sure,” she added. “So we’re blessed that it didn’t do any more damage than it did.”

#update Here’s a closer look at the bus. The homeowners said they saw the kid get out of the bus and he looked okay. Still no confirmation on an age, but the homeowners say the child was very small. @WBRZ pic.twitter.com/vg8bCFNnWG

— Sydney Kern (@sydneykern) October 11, 2020

Witnesses told WAFB that the boy could be seen laughing as he drove the bus throughout the chase.

“As it got closer and closer and closer, it’s a little boy in there and he was laughing,” witness Joy Gradney said. “He was like giggling on the way across Florida, so he gets right past me. I seen him, like, oh my goodness, it’s a boy, a little boy.”

The boy has since been charged with theft of a motor vehicle, aggravated flight, three charges of aggravated damage to property and aggravated assault. Since the boy was charged as a juvenile, his identity has not been revealed to the public.

Police added that though nobody was injured in this incident, the boy was charged with “aggravated assault” because he allegedly tried to hit another vehicle at one point in the chase. McKneely said that upon his arrest, the 11 year-old boy told officers that he had stolen the bus “just to do it.”